Harrogate Break

We had another good night's sleep.

After breakfast, we caught the number 7 bus back to Harrogate to meet up with Gill and Paul. Gill surprised me with the Liberty sewing box I had so admired yesterday. She had gone back to the shop this morning to buy it for me 😀

We got the next bus to Knaresborough just 13 minutes away. The last time I visited the town was on a school trip in about 1976 so I can't say much of it was very familiar!

We wandered around the town and commented on the plethora of old independent shops seemingly still doing a roaring trade. It was market day, too, so there was plenty to look at.

We then went to see the ruins of Knaresborough Castle. We didn't pay to go in as we thought we could see it all from the outside. It's perched on a crag at the top of the Nidder Valley. There were glorious views down to the weir and the River Nidd and also of the impressive railway viaduct.

Gill and I popped into the tourist office to get some advice on the best way to walk so that we'd see everything. We took the lady at her word and made our way down a huge number of uneven steps to reach the valley floor.

Once there, we set off to find a rock house and a rock chapel. It was further than we thought so Paul and Mark stopped for a breather while Gill and I carried on. We eventually found them, only to discover that they are only open between 2pm and 4pm on Sundays from April to September! When we met up with the men again, we tried to convince them that they'd missed out on a spectacular sight, but they weren't buying it! 😂

Heading back towards the viaduct, we stopped for a coffee and a snack at a riverside café. It was warm enough to sit outside - unbelievable for so late in the year!

After lunch, we continued on to the next bridge and visited Mother Shipton's Cave. The old buildings we passed en route were really pretty. The walk to the cave was through a lovely autumnal forest which they were busy decorating ready for half-term and Halloween next week. Gill said the girls would have loved it! I think ours are too old for all that now 😂🤣

At the cave, we threw coins into the wishing well and made our wishes 🤞😀. We listened to the story of Old Mother Shipton and looked at the items left by celebrities to be petrified including Agatha Christie's handbag and John Wayne's stetson!

After our visit, we walked back up into town and caught the bus back to Harrogate. We visited the oldest pub in town, Hales Bar, for a drink and then went to the second oldest, the Old Bell, for another! 😂

Before the evening turned into something of a pub crawl, we did a search for the best restaurant in Harrogate and headed to the number one result - Orvieta - an Albanian-owned Mediterranean place. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal. It was the perfect end to a lovely couple of days ❤Read more